According to Apple, it has to defend itself against a massive flood of scammers who want to use the App Store to make a quick buck. In a press release, the US company has now presented figures for 2022 that show the extent to which fraudulent activities and other violations have been repelled. Apple also likes to use these statistics to explain why the app review and the centralization of app sales are more advantageous from the company’s point of view than sideloading, as will be required by the European Union in the future.
The App Store attracts over 650 million visitors weekly, according to the new data. According to Apple, it has 36 million registered developers. But in addition to honest developers, malicious actors are also trying to get up to mischief, always coming up with new ways and means.
Fewer banned developer accounts
The number of blocked developer accounts has almost halved compared to the previous year (2021: 802,000), which Apple justifies with better detection systems that prevent the creation of accounts in concrete suspected cases from the outset. Almost 105 million registrations for the Apple developer program were rejected.
In 57,000 illegal marketplaces, Apple stopped the distribution bypassing the App Store. Attempts to illegally distribute apps through the Developer Enterprise Program were blocked 3.9 million times. This distribution method is actually only intended for companies that use it to distribute internal employee apps. 282 million fraudulent customer accounts were blocked and 198 million new accounts behind which fraudulent intent was identified were prevented from being created.
More than one in six submissions rejected
In its App Review, Apple reviewed more than 6.1 million apps in 2022. 1.7 million submissions were rejected. In 185,000 cases, developers submitted an app to the App Store for the first time. In addition to automated checks for malware and compliance with the App Store Guidelines, Apple also inspects the apps through employees. In 20,000 cases, phone calls were made to give tips and hints on how to solve problems with rejected apps. App Review reviews over 100,000 apps per week, almost 90 percent within 24 hours.
As an example of fraud, Apple cites several apps disguised as financial management platforms that turn into other apps after approval for the App Store. Around 24,000 apps were blocked or removed from the App Store due to decoy tactics. 400,000 submitted apps were rejected for privacy violations, 29,000 for hidden features and 153,000 for being classified as spam, knockoffs or misleading. Apple keeps adjusting its rules, for example in autumn 2022, when full access to functions that can only be accessed via login was required.
147 million reviews removed
Incorrect ratings and reviews also appear to be a major problem. Out of over a billion ratings, more than 147 million were removed from the App Store for violations.
Last year, Apple also blocked nearly 3.9 million stolen credit cards for fraudulent purchases and banned 714,000 accounts from further transactions. Overall, fraudulent transactions in the App Store amounting to 2.09 billion US dollars have been prevented.
(mki)
